Overhead cranes such as bridge cranes which travel on their wheels along spaced apart, generally parallel rails are subject to a variety of uneven forces which adversely effect the traction and efficient running of the cranes. Such forces typically cause skewing of the cranes on the rails and high stress on the rails and the components of the cranes. As a consequence of the stress on the rails, the rails tend to become deformed and deviate from their generally parallel relationship. The deviation of the rails causes further traction problems and skewing of the crane to exacerbate the problem. As a consequence of the rail deformation, frequent maintenance of both the rails and the cranes as well as the rail supports are necessary. These problems, of course, are expensive to correct and cause considerable down time in which productivity of the cranes are lost.
The deformations and deviations in the crane wheels include removal of the steel material of the rail caused by a grinding action of the crane wheels, twisting of the rails about an axis parallel to their length, and lateral deviations in the rails caused by corresponding lateral forces of the wheels as they travel along the rails. Each of these types of problems require removal of the rails and either straightening of the rails or their complete replacement.